Trick or Treat
by corneroffandom
Summary: Velveteen Dream finds a way to make Aleister leave his room.


The room is dark. Quiet. The same as it's always been. Except that the further into Halloween they go, the more Aleister's senses snag on small changes here and there. He sits on the floor and meditates, mind only drifting back to awareness whenever he feels these vague shifts in the air. Then he feels _it._ Someone at his door, mere seconds before a loud pounding sound echoes through the room. "Ah, someone has finally come to _fight_ me," he says to himself.

His lips twist sardonically and he stands smoothly, stepping over the pile of his clothes before gripping the doorknob and opening it. He's somehow unsurprised by who he sees before him, or the appreciative gaze that eases up and down his body before Velveteen Dream smirks at him, leaning against the door as cool and as comfortable as he could be in this strange dimension Aleister prefers whenever he's not trying to entice a fight during Raw or Smackdown. "Trick or treat," he says coyly and Aleister rolls his eyes.

"What do you want, Patrick?"

"Oh come now," he says, voice smooth as silk, eyes starting to wander once more. "It's Halloween and you're still stuck in this stuffy old room?" He clicks his tongue at Aleister and Aleister moves to step back, close the door in his face. But Dream stops him with a solid hand against the wood and Aleister freezes, surprised. "Hear me out," he says. "Two minutes of your time, and if I don't sell you on this, then I'll leave and you can go back to your All Hallows Eve plans. Alright?"

Aleister glowers at him, but feels himself wavering, giving into Dream like he does more often than he cares to admit. "Fine. _Sell_ me."

Dream smirks and leans in, Aleister quickly finding himself drawn in by the look on his face, the pleased tone of his voice. When he agrees in less than thirty seconds, he's not sure who's more surprised, Dream or himself.

"It has to be here?" Aleister mumbles, finding himself standing in the middle of a neighborhood, clothes haphazardly thrown back on before Dream had grabbed his hand and led him out of the dimension he'd been using for the last few months.

"No, but it makes most sense geographically." Dream winks at him. "Better houses are here."

"Right," Aleister mumbles. "Now how exactly are you going to do this?"

Dream grins, and slowly reaches out for his hand. "Just watch me, babe." Aleister glares at him for a moment before he starts wiggling his fingers invitingly. "C'mon. I won't bite. Too hard, anyway."

Cursing to himself, Aleister reaches out and gingerly takes Dream's hand, allowing their fingers to lace together as Dream lightly squeezes him. Between one blink and the next, soft wisps of purple creeps over their intwined fingers and Aleister swallows, feeling a gentle tingling creep up his wrist. "Patrick..."

"It's ok," he says soothingly. "This is how it's supposed to feel."

All Aleister can do is stand there and watch him, watch the mist creep up their skin, slowly coating their entire bodies. He's not sure how Dream's gotten this adept at controlling his aura so quickly, but he had, and for a wild moment, Aleister feels _proud_ of the man, before everything twists, there's a strange, deep shifting sensation deep down inside of him, and the next thing he knows, he's staring into darkness, breathing heavily, hand still held by something warm and soothing, but much smaller than it had been. He blinks his eyes open and looks around before his eyes fall on a small, thin boy with wide, brown eyes and bright, flashing teeth. "Patrick?"

"Yeah," the kid says, gaping at him. "Oh my God, it worked. Look at you."

Aleister does, as much as he can, taking in the pale creaminess of his arms, his entire body free of tattoos and piercings. "Look at _you_," he offers feebly, unsure what else to say as he takes in Dream as a child, before vanity and an overwhelming confidence had taken him over, led him into the path of becoming a wrestler.

Dream grins at him, almost bashfully, and then coughs into his fist. "I'm glad my aura worked in shrinking our clothes, that coulda been awkward otherwise." Then he brightens. "Hey, I have a surprise for you." He ducks into some bushes and pulls out a bag. "I... I kinda thought you may not have gone trick or treating much, since I've been told Halloween is more of an American thing but... I- I, yeah. I got you something. I hope the size is kind of close. I wasn't sure..."

Aleister stares at the Zombie costume for so long that Dream starts to feel uncomfortable. "I, I'm sorry, it's really all they had left on the shelves since I did this so last minute, if you don't like it, we can swap- maybe-"

"No," he says, accent thick as he reaches out for the costume. "It's great, Patrick, really. Thank you."

Dream's face lights up in a relieved grin and Aleister stares at him for a long moment before they split up to change behind the bushes. Aleister's zombie costume looks pretty good on him, and Dream makes a decent Green Lantern when he finally reveals himself, turning in a circle so Aleister can take him in. "Nice," he says and Dream grins, thrusting a spare plastic bag at him.

When he quirks an eyebrow at him, Dream chuckles. "For the candy."

"Oh," Aleister says, feeling a little dumb. "Right." He's not sure where to go first, so he quietly follows Dream as he goes up to a house with lights blaring on the porch and close to the street.

"So just make sure the houses you go to have lights on," Dream explains in a whisper to him as they walk towards the door, pausing to look at the carved pumpkins lining the steps. "The ones who don't aren't passing out candy, and people get pissy if you come when they don't want you to." Aleister nods, eyes wide as Dream knocks on the door. "When they answer, say trick or treat, and hold your bag out."

"Right," Aleister mumbles, fumbling with his wrinkled up bag. Despite how overwhelmed he feels by all of this, the level of shyness he hasn't felt since he was, well, a child hitting him hard all over again, he follows Dream's instructions as best as he can, gaping up at the woman who answers the door and cheerfully drops some candy in each bag.

"Thank you," Dream calls out, Aleister stumbling to echo him before following him back down the stairs and towards the next house. He pauses at the next driveway and turns. "So what do you think so far?"

Aleister shrugs. "It's a lot of work for some candy, huh?"

Dream grins, his eyes twinkling. "That's half the fun, man. C'mon." He drapes an arm around Aleister's shoulders and they walk side by side until needing to go up the stairs separates them, Aleister once more falling in line with Dream and following his lead as they wait patiently for more candy to be dropped in their bags.

House after house go by and Aleister starts to feel cold and tired, his short legs making keeping up with Dream's strides- wide even though he's so much smaller than as an adult- more and more difficult as time passes. His bag getting heavier quickly isn't really helping much and finally, at the end of the next block, he forces out a strained, "Patrick," relieved when the boy stops and turns towards him, about to speak before realization crosses his face and he returns to Aleister's side.

"Hey, are you ok?"

"Ye- yeah, it's just... cold?" Aleister manages through chattering teeth and Dream's eyes soften.

"It is, you're right. The sun went down and stuff. That's why." He sighs and glances into their bags. "We got a pretty decent amount for your first year. C'mon, let's go get back into our regular clothes, I'll take you back to your dimension. Alright?"

But Aleister doesn't move, staring at him. "First year? You mean, you'd want to do this with me again?"

Dream pauses, and then lifts his shoulders in an uncertain shrug. "I mean, yeah. If you wouldn't mind. I had a lot of fun tonight." He reaches out and gently squeezes Aleister's free hand, smiling at him.

Aleister holds his breath for a moment, warmed by both the feel of Dream's hand in his and the weight of his stare. "So did I," he finally exhales and Dream grins. They walk back to the bushes where their clothes wait, Dream only letting go of his hand when he absolutely needs to, and before Aleister is ready for it, they're dressed and purple haze is drifting over their small forms, slowly aging them back to the adults they were less than an hour earlier.

Aleister takes in a deep breath, opening his eyes to find himself back once more in the quiet, still dimension Dream had found him in at the start of all of this, and looks over at the young man, standing tall and certain in his own skin once more, bag of candy dangling from slack fingers as he stalls for time, clearly unwilling to leave just yet. He smiles slightly, resting a hand on the door next to Dream, and catches his eye. "Stay," he says simply and Dream's eyes widen.

"What?"

Aleister's lips twitch upwards and he tangles his fingers in Dream's vest, drawing him further into the room. "You heard me."

So Dream stays.


End file.
